KVI Orphanage Addis

Monday morning Embakom is having a great time playing with all of the kids in the guesthouse. The hotel girls are watching them all, and the driver is available, so I decide to scoot off to the KVI orphanage in Addis. Once kids are matched from KVI orphanages in the country side, they are moved to this site to await court - so it's a busy place with lots of transition occurring daily. There are also a lot of kids there who haven't been matched yet. All will spend precious months so crucial to their development, waiting and wishing for someone's hugs, and someone's eyes watching them like only a parent can.



We stop at a mid-sized supermarket en route and again I buy every can of formula on the shelf, 5 big cartons full, and a few other staples that I'm told they'll use. I have one last duffel bag full of stuff from Canada too, shoes and medicine, vitamins, granola bars, some toys, and another big bag of balls I scooped from a vendor on the street by the guesthouse. When we get there a rush of kids greet us as we come through the gate.






I'm blindsided by my emotions as the kids clamber into our van, and greet me with hugs and smiles. Again, I get the thanks that all of my friends deserve for their generous gifts! Having spent a few days now with Embakom, I'm extra sympathetic to how much these little guys want a home and a family, and just how fun and sweet they are despite what they've been through. I really want to stuff a gang of them in the van and take 'em all home.


Instead, I get a tour of the facility. The baby-room was especially moving, and in fact I was so shaken I couldn't take pictures. There were 15 or 20 babies, 3 to a crib, and many on heaps of cloths on the floor. They were feeding themselves, those too small to hold a bottle had theirs propped in their mouths against a pile of rags. Most were wet - and though I offered to help change them I was told that it wasn't time yet. Picking them up and holding them was so very sweet, but putting them down unbearable so I didn't last long in that room.

The toddlers and older kids were happy to show me how they do their chores, where they sleep and where they play. They tried to keep me around as long as possible, playing in the van, holding my hand, and making a huge game of showing big sad faces when I made movements to go, but my own little one waiting at the guesthouse was on my mind, so I didn't last more than about an hour before heading back.